A healthier planet requires better data on a global scale that is enabled by 4IR technologies and systems, such as cloud, AI, sensors, IoT, and APIs. Such data enables insights and actions that support environmental sustainability. Here are three significant developments in this complex space – and one question.
Microsoft
Promotes a Planetary Computer that enables monitoring, modeling, and managing planetary resources.
UNEP
The UN Environment Programme is promoting a Digital Ecosystem for the Planet, comprising data, infrastructure, rapid analytics, and real-time insights (begins at 1:05:39).
European Commission
A final development is a proposed artifact: a Digital Product Passport that contains data on the environmental sustainability of a product.
These and other initiatives are significant developments in the digital environmental sustainability space with a great deal of possibility (and risk).
At the same time, there may be some duplication of effort given parallel initiatives going after the same vision. So my question is:
How to effectively engage diverse stakeholders with very different knowledge competencies to develop a consensus on how best to collaborate on a shared vision for a planetary data ecosystem?
Some efforts are getting different stakeholders together, such as the UN CODES. My own initial take on this is that
- those from the technical community need to learn more about environmental sustainability from an SDG and data perspective, and
- those from the environmental sustainability community need to learn more on the intuition of basic 4IR tech, such as the intuition and governance of APIs and the affordances of AI.
In the absence of a basic level of shared knowledge across these domains, it is difficult to listen, understand, and collaborate towards the shared vision.